


The Reunion

by VeryAnonymousHuman



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Implied Mpreg, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kid Fic, M/M, Misunderstandings, Phone Calls & Telephones, Post-Break Up, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29489073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryAnonymousHuman/pseuds/VeryAnonymousHuman
Summary: "...But the point is- we need to go back to Greendale. Some crisis.”“Abed would call that a very vague plot point, Britta.”“Well, it’s Greendale we’re talking about and Abed isn’t exactly Scorsese himself, Shirley.”“Abed would also not turn up if you called Troy. And Troy wouldn’t turn up if you called Annie. And Annie would probably just not turn up because she’s undercover or something. She changed her phone number thrice last month.”“So… just you, me and Jeff?”“That’s not fair. I have children!”“So does Abed.”“You think I give a rat’s ass about that, Britta? I went along on all of his crazy adventures even when I had to pay 20 dollars an hour to a high schooler and trust him with my two toddlers and a newborn. Time to return the favour. Also, Troy can pay more than 20 dollars an hour for his daughter. Call them both.”
Relationships: Abed Nadir & Jeff Winger, Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Annie Edison & Jeff Winger, Shirley Bennett & Britta Perry, Troy Barnes & Shirley Bennett & Annie Edison & Abed Nadir & Britta Perry & Jeff Winger, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Kudos: 9





	The Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> I think it'll be pretty evident from the fic itself than I'm not from the US, so please excuse the inaccuracies.  
> Yes, I borrowed Lottie from Atlanta (FX) and sorta based this whole thing on Earn (Donald Glover) saying, "And if you can't do this out of love for me, do this out of love for her." Except that Abed doesn't instantly say that that's bullshit.  
> Also, I don't think Abed would accept the money that Troy essentially left him for.  
> This whole thing happens via telephonic conversations so I hope that's not too confusing.

“Shirley, is the text chain still alive?”  
“Would you be asking me if it was, Britta?”  
“Fine! How do I let everyone know the Dean called me?”  
“You?”  
“Oh put a lid on that sarcasm, Shirley.”  
“Why did the Dean call you?”  
“I guess because he couldn’t get Jeff. But the point is- we need to go back to Greendale. Some crisis.”  
“Abed would call that a very vague plot point.”  
“Well, it’s Greendale we’re talking about and Abed isn’t exactly Scorsese himself, Shirley.”  
“Abed would also not turn up if you called Troy. And Troy wouldn’t turn up if you called Annie. And Annie would probably just not turn up because she’s undercover or something. She changed her phone number thrice last month.”  
“So… just you, me and Jeff?”  
“That’s not fair. I have children!”  
“So does Abed.”  
“You think I give a rat’s ass about that, Britta? I went along on all of his crazy adventures even when I had to pay 20 dollars an hour to a high schooler and trust him with my two toddlers and a newborn. Time to return the favour. Also, Troy can pay more than 20 dollars an hour for his daughter. Call them both.”  
“You just said Abed won’t go if Troy does.”  
“Yeah, well… tell him it’s payback for that one time he made me play paintball two days after I gave birth.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

“I’m not going, Britta.”  
“But it’s payback, Abed! That’s the point.”  
“I’ll let Shirley teach me tightrope walking two days after I give birth, would that satisfy her bloodlust?”  
“I’m not sure if whatever you said is… the point is, Greendale is in crisis!”  
“That’s vague even by your standards, Britta.”  
“Well… I don’t know, just bring Lottie along!”  
“I should bring my five-year-old along? To a crisis?”  
“A vague crisis. I’m sure there’s no fire… anywhere near the main building. Also, Abed! She’s a Greendale baby! What’s the point of shielding her from her birth-place even if it is a bit chaotic at times?”  
“A bit chaotic? Am I the only one who remembers the fact that I had to deliver her in the middle of the study room? While a race riot was going on outside?”  
“Oh, Abed, you make it seem so much worse than it really was. You delivered that child perfectly…”  
“…I got practice with the other two babies I delivered on the Greendale campus. 911 can never reach that place within two hours.”  
“Aaaaaand, it wasn’t even a race you-know-what. It was a minor kerfuffle.”  
“As was the Holocaust.”  
“Look Abed, I’m the buzzkill around here and even I…”  
“I’m not going, Britta.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

“Hello?”  
“Hey! Annie! I’m Britta!”  
“Oh hi Britta! Not that I’m not thrilled to hear from you but how did you get this number? I mean, if you have it, I definitely have to change it again.”  
“Well uh… remember that secret service agent who used to hit on Abed? Well, Abed got your number for me.”  
“Oh… well, that sorta makes more sense. I’ll still have to change it though.”  
“Don’t worry, Annie, my lips are sealed.”  
“Yeah but your phone records aren’t. Anyway, so what’s going on?”  
“Oh nothing. Crisis at Greendale.”  
“Ohhhh! A reunion? I had this entire binder for reunion ideas! But well… it all went out of the window when Troy became an asshole.”  
“Yeah er… what’s that about, really? I haven’t called him yet but that’s mostly because I knew Abed would know if I had called him. It’s like he can read minds.”  
“Britta, you’re just a terrible liar. But well… I don’t know where to start because I honestly don’t know what irked Troy in the first place. Maybe it was because I was living with Abed and Lottie when he wasn’t there. He never screamed at me or anything so I don’t exactly know what his issues are. I guess he just assumed we were sleeping together and decided to start acting like a jackass.”  
“Didn’t you tell him you weren’t? Sleeping together, that is.”  
“I did want to. But he kept avoiding conversations like an idiot and then Abed got pissed that he was pissed at me and it was a whole thing. Plus, I cannot really keep contacting civilians for no reason. I am undercover, you know?”  
“Drug ring?”  
“Yeah actually! Cool, right? I get to sample everything and no one gets to arrest me for it.”  
“Well… I’m way too unqualified to tackle that at the moment. Are you gonna be drugged to the gills when you’re here? Abed might actually bring Lottie. I don’t know if Shirley’s gonna bring Ben.”  
“Why would Shirley bring Ben? Her new husband loves that kid. Come to think about it, Abed could have married by now. He’s in gay-town LA of all places.”  
“First, don’t call it gay-town LA and wait, so we’re on that train now? Not the ‘let’s secretly plan to reunite Troy and Abed by using the Greendale Crisis as an excuse’ train?”  
“Is the Greendale Crisis an excuse, Britta?”  
“It’s Greendale, Annie. Come on. Don’t pretend you weren’t snogging someone’s face in the middle of the paintball war.”  
“Well, true. I just don’t know… I haven’t spoken to Troy in ages. How did you even manage to convince Abed to bring Lottie?”  
“About that…”  
“You want me to do it, don’t you?”  
“Or Jeff, or whoever.”  
“You’re the worst, Britta. But we’re getting plucked from the field next week, I’m supposed to be arrested and all that. So yeah, hopefully I’ll meet you at Greendale next week!”  
“Aren’t you gonna be in withdrawal… you know what? Never mind. You do you, Annie.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

“Hi, Jeff?”  
“Annie? Is this really you?”  
“Yeah! It’s really me! We’re meeting next week, right? Did Britta call you?”  
“Greendale Crisis? Yada Yada? Yeah, she did. I already told her I’ll be there. I mean I’m sure there’s no real crisis but I haven’t met you all in ages.”  
“About that… Can you…”  
“No.”  
“You didn’t even let me…”  
“No.”  
“Jeff!”  
“The last time you made me interfere in their relationship, it resulted in Abed telling Troy, and I quote, ‘Our friendship is dead now’ and Troy telling Abed that he had to move out.”  
“But then you solved it eventually!”  
“They solved it, Annie. They solved it because they loved each other.”  
“And you think they don’t now?”  
“Oh I’m sure they do. But there’s a kid involved now. A kid Troy ran away from.”  
“Oh, Jeff. It’s not…”  
“I don’t care what it’s like, Annie. It’s what he did. I’m not convincing him to come back.”  
“Umm… fine. You call Abed. You want him back, right? He hasn’t come back to Colorado since he left!”  
“Neither have you.”  
“But he didn’t have to taste test drugs.”  
“Annie, I’m… only going to ask this once. Are you taste testing drugs?”  
“That’s beside the point, Jeff. The thing is, can you talk to Abed?”  
“Yeah, sure. I was supposed to meet him soon anyway. Lottie really needs to learn non-nerdy things.”  
“You couldn’t have led with that? You can just ask Abed to visit you and then you can take him along to Greendale.”  
“Well… we’ll see about that. Anyway, what’s your role here? Dumping your responsibilities on a common civilian?”  
“Oh, no. I’m going to do the real hardcore shit.”  
“Yeah? Like what?”  
“I’m going to talk to Troy.”  
“Good lord…”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Heeeeyyyyyy Troy.”  
“Britta?”  
“Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaah. That’s me!”  
“Why are you being awkward?”  
“Did anyone call you about the crisis at Greendale?”  
“No. No one usually calls me about anything now.”  
“That’s not true! I call no one. I mean I do stay over with Shirley at times, and Jeff… I didn’t really have an apartment for a while.”  
“I have a mansion.”  
“Yeah, I mean… you know how it is. I’m your ex and Abed wouldn’t…”  
“I don’t think… I don’t think he gives a fuck about what I do. And you literally used to live with him.”  
“For a while yeah, but oh, about that first bit. I’m sure he cares, Troy.”  
“You don’t do phony-polite well, Britta, cut it out. This mansion has been lying empty for the entirety of the past year. Absolutely none of you have visited.”  
“Troy, it’s not…”  
“I know what it’s like, Britta. I know what Jeff thinks of me. But I didn’t fucking abandon my family, I… wait there’s another call on the line.”  
“Oh thank God. I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to talk about this but… you should really take that call.”  
“Glad to know you’re still the fucking worst.”

______________________________________________________________________________

“Hello?”  
Silence.  
“If you’re one of Pierce’s guys, I really can’t…”  
“I’m Annie.”  
“…Oh.”  
“Do Pierce’s guys call you often?”  
“Yeah, I own his company now.”  
“You don’t run it.”  
“No, I just own it.”  
“That doesn’t seem very safe.”  
“Neither did Pierce.”  
“Well, that was sort of the entire problem.”  
“Are you just calling me to list everything I’m doing wrong? Because that’s not even top five on that list.”  
“You know what you’re doing wrong then?”  
“Obviously. I know exactly what I did that allowed you to steal my family.”  
“Oh grow up, Troy. I didn’t fucking steal anyone. I don’t even live anywhere near them.”  
“Well you certainly didn’t have a problem in playing house with my husband when I was gone.”  
“You were never married, Troy. Also, what was I supposed to do? Abandon a guy in his early twenties with a two-month-old?”  
“I didn’t abandon them!”  
“Sailing off into the sunset to become a multi-millionaire is the textbook definition of abandonment.”  
“Well, who was I trying to get those millions for, Annie? Everything I did was for them. My family. The voyage was for my family. The money was for my family. This mansion was… is for my family.”  
“Troy, Abed never told you to get millions in the first place. He didn’t even think you were abandoning him at first, he thought you were suicidal. You still think I stole him away from you?”  
“I didn’t really see you in my corner when I was trying to convince him that I had done this for him.”  
“That’s because I didn’t believe you either. No one did. We all thought you were losing your mind.”  
“Well maybe I was. I didn’t expect you lot to understand but Abed did, Abed always did.”  
“Well, that was before Abed had to keep a two-month-old alive all him himself. I know you think I changed him. I had nothing to do with it. Fatherhood changed him. And fatherhood always was going to change him. Remember how he stayed awake for days for that rat and those sparrows? I don’t think this is very complicated at all. You have to get your head out of your ass, and apologise.”  
“You think I didn’t…”  
“No, I mean actually apologize. You are in the wrong here, he isn’t. You left to be your own man or whatever on earth that was. What was the father of your child supposed to think about that? How was he supposed to predict that you wouldn’t die or wouldn’t meet someone else in one of the thousand countries you were visiting and settle down or just decide to not come back because you were scared of fatherhood? How on earth is anyone supposed to predict that you did all this for some harebrained scheme of yours to provide for a husband who was going to work in Hollywood eventually?”  
“Annie, I…”  
“Explain yourself to Abed, not me. But do apologize to me my all means when the Abed part is done.”  
“I’m really…”  
“Troy, convince Abed to turn up for the Greendale Crisis. We are 97% sure there is no crisis but Greendale would still be lost without you two.”  
“I don’t think this’ll work but thanks anyway, Annie.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Hey, Abed.”  
“Jeff.”  
“You sound enthusiastic.”  
“I know why you’re calling me.”  
“Can you really read minds?”  
“No. Shirley called me a while back and told me Ben could really benefit from having a half-black half-Arabic friend.”  
“That’s… simultaneously very cute and very offensive.”  
“Well, it’s Shirley.”  
“So, you coming?”  
Silence.  
“Abed, you know there’s no one who hates Troy more than I do.”  
“Did he run after saddling you with a half-black half-white baby, Jeff?”  
“Well, I’d at least be able to punch him in the face for that.”  
“You’d just get pummeled.”  
“Your faith in your runaway hubby is astounding.”  
“We were never married.”  
“Abed… what if I told Annie and Britta to not ask Troy to turn up?”  
“They’re trying to do a ‘reunite Troy and Abed where their baby was conceived’ trope so I don’t think you can convince them.”  
“Conceived? Ewwwww! Why would you do that on the study table?”  
“I know you can’t see it but I’m rolling my eyes at you right now.”  
“Ugh, good luck telling your daughter that she was made during a porno reenactment.”  
“Most people don’t tell their children under what circumstances they were made, Jeff and for your information, we were doing How to Get Away with Murder.”  
“Well, that… will still remind me of the study table as soon as I look at Lottie.”  
“You’re a disturbed man, Jeff.”  
“Are you bringing Lottie, Abed? That’s the main question.”  
“Do you have a Winger Speech planned?”  
“I don’t plan Winger Speeches, Abed. That’s the point of Winger speeches. And no, I just want you to come and meet us. I really, actually, terribly, inordinately miss you. That’s it. That’s the speech.”  
“Jeff, I…”  
“Just sleep on it, Abed. I can get rid of Troy for you, if you want. Sleep on that too.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

“Abed.”  
“Lottie’s still too young to visit Venezuela.”  
“This isn’t… about Lottie.”  
“Wait, are you really calling me about the Greendale Crisis?”  
“Are we really not going to address how vague that is?”  
“Troy…”  
“You don’t need to take that grown-up tone with me.”  
“We are grown-ups, Troy. We have a child together, who is an actual child.”  
“You think I don’t know that? Why do you always have to make me feel like an irresponsible asshole? You know what? Don’t… don’t answer that.”  
“Are we going to argue again? Lottie’s not asleep yet.”  
“No… actually. Annie called me.”  
“Annie? Did you… apologize?”  
“The thing is…”  
“Please tell me you apologized for calling her a homewrecker.”  
“I never said it to her face.”  
“That’s worse.”  
“The thing is… I cannot apologize to her till I successfully apologize to you.”  
“What counts as a successful apology? That I forgive you?”  
“No. I don’t think so. I mean, I want it, desperately… but that’s like wanting a million dollars.”  
“You have several million dollars.”  
“I really Britta-d that analogy.”  
“Can we not talk about your money, Troy?”  
“Abed, you don’t have to sound so…”  
“Cross? Well I’m sick and tired of being reminded of your money and how much of a better life Lottie would have with it.”  
“Who said anything about a better life?”  
“You did! You know what? Call me when Lottie falls asleep. I can’t do this right now.”  
“How the fuck am I supposed to know when Lottie falls… hello? Abed? Hello? Well, fuck you too.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

“Troy.”  
“I was supposed to call you.”  
“Well, I called you.”  
“Good.”  
“Good.”  
Silence.  
“Do we argue now?”  
“Is that what the plot dictates?”  
“Well, I’m outside now. You can scream at me. And I can scream at you.”  
“Wait, you’re outside? Now? You never liked being out in the cold.”  
“The cold never bothered me anyway.”  
“That’s Frozen, Abed. You’re quoting Frozen now?”  
“I’m the father of a five-year-old, Troy.”  
“I am too. Why do you always say stuff like that?”  
“Like what?”  
“Like Lottie just has you. Like you’re a single parent.”  
“Doesn’t she?”  
“I want to be around, Abed. I wanted you both to move in with me.”  
“I’m not stepping into that mansion, Troy. Neither is Lottie.”  
“I got it for the both of you.”  
“Did we ever ask for it?”  
“Well…”  
“I know why you think you left. To provide for us? As if everyone on earth needs millions to survive? Neither of us had anything close to a million while we were growing up. We were perfectly happy. When and how and why did you get obsessed with money? It honestly felt like you were waiting for Pierce’s offer, to jump up on that stupid boat and flee and...”  
“I did flee.”  
“No Troy, you did…wait what?”  
“I’m agreeing. I did flee. I ran away. I was twenty-one and I had a baby with genius who was going to work with Marin Scorsese. So, I did run away. And I did not even care about the money at the end of the tunnel because as we all know… it sounded like a pipe dream. I was a 21-year-old black kid who has never set foot in New Jersey let alone New Guinea. I just thought, maybe… this way I’d be remembered as a hero. My daughter wouldn’t be told ‘Your other dad aced the AC repair school’ but rather ‘Your dad got kidnapped by pirates.’”  
“I fail to understand how that is any better.”  
“Well 23-year-old Abed would have found it exciting.”  
“No, 23-year-old Abed puked up his dinner when he switched on the news and then had a panic attack. 23-year-old Abed had a kid. And 21-year-old Troy did too. Which is why I fail to understand why you ever thought acing the AC repair school was anything short of extraordinary. Were we idiotic by becoming pregnant in our early twenties while we were in community college? Sure. But we weren’t going to fuck up any more than anyone else was fucking up. Money was tight, sure but it wouldn’t be like that forever. And this wasn’t even about money. You actually thought the greatest favour you could do your daughter was dying in the middle of nowhere!”  
“I wasn’t suicidal, Abed…”  
“No, suicidal people have more concrete plans. You were just… Did Britta diagnose you?”  
“Britta didn’t even try.”  
“Troy, I needed you to be there. And I especially needed to not feel like you would rather die than be with us. There was a time when I genuinely wished that Jeff was right about you. That you had just settled down with a leggy blonde in Ukraine and had seventeen babies.”  
“Why seventeen?”  
“Why Ukraine? You… broke my heart, Troy. I can usually predict stuff. I had run the simulations. I knew you’d probably want to leave one day. We were the quintessential college couple. Young love. We’d separate in our thirties. Have joint custody. And I was willing to take those ten years of happiness over all else. But apparently that was wishing for a bit too much.”  
“You thought that I would leave you?”  
“Eventually, yes.”  
“Why?”  
“That’s just what… happens.”  
“People leave you.”  
“Yes.”  
“And why do you think that happens?”  
“Because… I’m not good enough?”  
“Yeah, that idiotic thought. That’s in all our heads, Abed! You dealt with it better than me perhaps but not really. You always had one foot out of the door because you thought you could predict the future. You would have stepped into your thirties with anxiety, counting the days to an inevitable end. And you think you would have been okay with it, because you prepared for it, but you wouldn’t be. I just fucked up before you did. And I’m not blaming you for it, I’m just trying to get you to understand where I was coming from. Where I was coming from is stupid but everyone’s stupid. And I fucked up royally because of that stupidity. I got stuck in my head.”  
“I was… stuck in mine too.”  
“But you were a better father, Abed. Hell, I wasn’t even a worse father, I wasn’t a father at all.”  
“Lottie thinks you’re her father’s boyfriend.”  
“What? We barely talk.”  
“Her best friend’s dad is in the army. Her mother talks about her dad all the time even though he’s not home often.”  
“You… talk about me all the time?”  
“I talk about the best friend I had in college. The guy I was in love with.”  
“So… Garret?”  
“Troy.”  
“Sorry, go on.”  
“So, Lottie’s smart. She connected the dots herself. She knows about you as well. She doesn’t know why I don’t just talk about you as… you, but she thinks it’s because you’re a secret agent like Annie. That you’ll get killed if we contact you directly.”  
“Abed, that’s… you know what? That guy from college? I hear he’s going to be back for the reunion. Next week.”  
“You mean for the Greendale Crisis?”  
“Yeah, the Crisis.”  
“Well… I hear the guy that you used to like in college? He’s gonna be back too. After all, Greendale would be lost without them.”  
“I still lo…”  
“No.”  
“No?”  
“Whatever you’re gonna say, save it for the Crisis Reunion.”  
“You’ll bring Lottie?”  
“Yeah, she could really benefit from having a devout Christian black friend in her life.”  
“What?”  
“Oh and… Jeff might try to punch you, sorry. Good night!”

____________________________________________________________________________________________

“Shirley, why aren’t we sitting in the study room? Awwww, Lottie! She’s really getting along with Ben, isn’t she?”  
“Oh, Annie, I hope they marry one day!”  
“That’s… fast. Jeff? Why are we sitting in the cafeteria instead of the study room? And where are Lottie’s fathers?”  
“Annie, do you really need me to spell it out for you?”  
“Oh… oh…oh no, that’s fast. Britta? You’re really fine with this?”  
“As long as we don’t have a race… kerfuffle in nine months, I say we’re good.”


End file.
